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X-Men: First Class

So Matthew Vaughn has this thing about only directed one movie in what otherwise could be great franchises with him. Kick-Ass and X-Men: First Class for examples. Not to say those films’ sequels weren’t great, I loved them both, but Vaughn just sets franchises up, and doesn’t stick around. So when I found out that Vaughn was leaving X-Men Days of Future Past for some film called Kingsman I wasn’t surprised, yet pretty disappointed! I didn’t get it! But as the trailers slowly started coming out, I started changing my tune. And Kingsman: The Secret Service, is just another example of how good Vaughn is. Written by Vaughn and based on a comic called The Secret Service by Mark Miller and Dave Gibbions, with a stunning cast of Colin Firth, Samuel L. Jackson, Mark Strong, Michael Caine, Luke Freaking Skywalker, Sofia Boutella, and relative unknown Taron Egerton.

Kingsman tells the story of a troubled young boy named Eggsy (Egerton) whose father was once a Secret Agent. When a spot in the service opens up, Eggsy is chosen by his father’s trainer Galahad (Firth) to be his candidate for replacement. As the trainees work to become the next Kingsman, a mastermind criminal (Jackson) is revealed, and they must begin to try to figure out what he is up to. While Eggsy rises to the top of his class, he quickly learns what being a Kingsman is all about, and he must band together with only a few to save the world from certain disaster.

This film is incredible! I expected to really enjoy it, but not as much as I did. I had to double check that I was really still in the middle of February and it wasn’t summer blockbuster time, because this film has that feel to it. It has mixture of feel to it, where it almost is a film that merges old school James Bond films, with a little of Kick-Ass to it. It truly is a fun film, with a good story. There is a little over the top acting, but not that it takes you out of the film. The action scenes are crisp and fun, in typical Matthew Vaughn fashion. They can be gruesome and violent. Not to the point that they are overdone, but definitely in the vain of Kick-Ass which is awesome!

Another major plus is this cast. Some of the greatest British actors ever put together. This is like an Oceans Twelve of great Brits! Firth is great, and for a 50 something year old he is awesome at the action sequences in here. Mark Strong is strong as always (Pun intended). And Samuel L. Jackson even a completely different version of himself, and still, kind of a badass mother F’er! Taron Egerton is definitely a break out star in the film. This kid has a bright future ahead of him. (Spidey????) One of my favorite cameos in the film is obviously Luke Freaking Skywalker, Mark Hamill. Hamill plays a character that his likeness was the inspiration for in the original comic, which is obviously fun to see. He even uses the Joker voice a little here and there, mark out moment of course.

There are a few small issues with the film. There is a little bit of use of Shaky cam during the action scenes. It is not as terrible as it usually used, Matthew Vaughn does a good job at using it correctly. Nevertheless, it is shaky cam. The training montage during the beginning is very choppy and definitely could have been shot better. When we get to the final climax of the movie, you see our hero Eggsy doing some stuff that you kind of think to yourself, “where the hell did he learn to do this, that wasn’t in any of his training!” which kind of takes you out of the film, but you immediately jump right back in and start having fun again.

Even the problems are pretty nitpicky right? This is just a fun film! One that you need to go see. Men, women, husbands, wives, boyfriends, girlfriends, whatever you are doing this Valentine’s Day weekend, change you plans if they do not involve seeing this film! I’m giving it a 4.4 with a bonus of .3 for how much fun it is, and another .2 for LUKE F’N SKYWALKER! That’s a Jeebus Score of 4.9! So Jackass Nation, are you planning on seeing Kingsman? If not, WHATS WRONG WITH YOU, GO SEE KINGSMAN! Sound off in the comments below!

The Jeebus score is out of a possible 6 points. Films are giving a max of 1 point each for Acting, Entertainment, and Casting, and a max of .5 for Dialog, Cinematography, and Direction. There is also a possible bonus up to .5. Any film between 2.5 and 4 is considered a good film. 4-5 is a great film. Anything over 5 is an incredibly amazing film. To get a perfect score of 6 a film will pretty much have to be The Godfather.